Budget Realities Come Home To Roost

Like the proponents of Ohio's Issue 2 tried to point out before the November vote, keeping the status quo on Ohio public union salaries, benefits, and pensions was unsustainable.

A yes vote would've kept Ohio Senate Bill 5 as law, and tried to reign in the runaway spending and debt being heaped on the state. Unions spent over $50M to defeat Issue 2, as evidenced by the utter proliferation of "No on 2" signs that sprouted all over the state.

As was warned, the budget realities must now be faced. Cities across the state are running out of money and are now being forced to lay off fire and police employees (e.g. Portsmouth, Lancaster, Middletown). Without SB5, the only options left to the cities are higher taxes or less employees.

The main scare tactic by the "No on 2" crowd was that fire and police employees were going to lose their jobs and communities were going to be less safe. As it turns out, not ALL of the police and fireman are getting fired (as the dire warning went during the run up to the vote), just the ones on the bottom of the seniority totem pole.